Native American Wisdom, Maxims and Spiritual
Insights
2nd Edition
Compiled by Roberta Falkner
Copyright 2012 Roberta Falkner
Smashwords Edition, License Notes:
This
e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This e-book may
not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to
share this book with another person, please purchase an additional
copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not
purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please
return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for
respecting the hard word of this author.
Table of Contents
When European colonists first came to North America, they were met by a diverse group of indigenous people who had lived on the land for generations. Today, we collectively refer to these aboriginal people as Native Americans in the United States and First Nation people in Canada.
It is impossible to think of these various cultures as one homogeneous group, however, for each had their own language, government, customs, religion (or no religion), and belief system.
Some groups lived in permanent settlements while others were nomadic, following migratory herd animals like bison. Some were matrilineal where status was assigned according to the mother’s hereditary line while others were patrilineal, assigning status based on the father’s lineage. Some collaborated with neighboring tribes and some were sworn enemies with their neighbors.
What most Native Americans had in common was the fact that land they had lived on for thousands of years would soon be taken by the encroaching Euro-Americans.
Along with the loss of their ancestral lands, many Native Americans also lost or were on the verge of losing their cultural distinctions as the U.S. government deemed them uncivilized and sought to acculturate them through Indian schools and trade schools.
Many Native Americans were forced to give up their way of life and their lands and move to government-controlled reservations. Missionaries attempted to – and often succeeded in – converting them to Christianity. While some Native Americans wholeheartedly embraced Christianity, others feigned compliance while maintaining the spiritual beliefs of their ancestors. Some practiced both doctrines, merging Christianity with native mysticism.
As the United States spread from the original 13 colonies on the east coast, through the Great Plains of the Midwest with land acquired in the Louisiana Purchase, and, ultimately, to the west coast with the takeover of Spanish- and British-held territories, thirst for Native American land increased.
In 1823, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Indians could occupy land in the United States but could not hold title to the land.
In 1830, President Andrew Jackson signed into law the Indian Removal Act. This law forced the removal of the Five Civilized Nations (Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek and Seminole) from their homelands in the southern states to unsettled territories west of the Mississippi River. It is no coincidence gold had been discovered in Georgia before the law was enacted.
Inspired by manifest destiny (the belief it was America’s destiny to expand the fledgling country across the span of the continent), Native Americans were seen as obstacles to westward expansion. Those living in the Plains, along the west coast, in the Pacific Northwest, and in the Dakotas were gold had been discovered were once again forced from their homes.
Native Americans were urged to sell their ancestral lands, and in many instances land was purchased from Native Americans who did not have a legitimate claim to the land. The U.S. government established military forts in the west to protect American settlers and control Native Americans. Through wars and imposed treaties, Native Americans were eventually forced onto reservations and their lands taken over by the U.S. government, mining and lumber conglomerates, and Euro-American settlers.
In Native American Wisdom, Maxims, and Spiritual Insights, you can hear the voices of 50 Native Americans as they witness their way of life transformed from self-determination to assimilation. They describe their encounters with government forces and share their understanding of the natural world in which they live, their spiritual perceptions, and native wisdom.
At the end of this e-book, you’ll find a link to a free copy of a book written in 1918 by Dr. Charles Alexander Eastman (his Sioux name is Ohiyesa) entitled Indian Heroes and Great Chieftains.
This book – written by a contemporary – is a fascinating and intimate look into the lives of 15 Native American chiefs:
Red Cloud
Spotted Tail
Little Crow
Tamahay
Gall
Crazy Horse
Sitting Bull
Rain-in-the-Face
Two Strike
American Horse
Dull Knife
Roman Nose
Chief Joseph
Little Wolf
Hole-in-the-Day
Be sure to click on the link at the end of this e-book to get your complimentary copy of Indian Heroes and Great Chieftains by Charles A. Eastman.
Big Elk was an Omaha leader front the Great Plains area who met with two U.S. presidents to negotiate treaties for the Omaha. He became known as a distinguished orator and skillful negotiator.
~ ~ ~
The Great Spirit made my skin red, and he made us to live as we do now; and I believe that when the Great Spirit placed us on this earth, he consulted our happiness. We love our country; we love our customs and habits.
~ ~ ~
Think for yourselves … that you may be prepared for the coming change.
~ ~ ~
Do not grieve. Misfortunes will happen to the wisest and best of men. Death will come, always out of season. It is the command of the Great Spirit, and all nations and people must obey. What is past is past, and what cannot be prevented should not be grieved for.
~ ~ ~
Misfortunes do not flourish particularly in our lives. They grow everywhere.
~ ~ ~
Blackbird
Francis
Assikinack
1824 - 1863
Fracnis Assikinack, aka Blackbird, was an Ottawa (or Odahwah) from Canada. He worked as a clerk and interpreter for the Indian Department in Toronto and, after converting to Catholicism, as a Catholic school teacher. Assikinack wrote several essays about his native culture and language and about concepts he felt melded Catholicism with his native religion.
~ ~ ~
In my opinion, it was chiefly owing to their deep contemplation in their silent retreats in the days of youth that the old Indian orators acquired the habit of carefully arranging their thoughts. They listened to the warbling of birds and noted the grandeur and the beauties of the forest. The majestic clouds, which appear like mountains of granite floating in the air, the golden tints of a summer evening sky and all the changes of nature possessed a mysterious significance. All this combined to furnish ample matter for reflection to the contemplating youth.
~ ~ ~
Black
Elk
Hehaka Sapa
1863- 1950
Black Elk was a medicine man (holy man or spiritual leader) of the Oglala Lakota (Sioux). He was considered a clairvoyant who had visions and at the age of nine claimed to have seen the “spirit who rules the universe” in a vision. As an adult, Black Elk became a Catholic yet continued as a spiritual leader to his people, taking what he considered spiritual truths from both his native religion and Catholicism. Black Elk participated in the Battle of the Little Bighorn when he was 13 and sustained an injury in the Wounded Knee Massacre. His cousin was Crazy Horse. Black Elk dictated his life story to author John G. Neilhardt who published Black Elk Speaks: The Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux.
~ ~ ~
The first peace, which is the most important, is that which comes within the souls of people when they realize their relationship, their oneness, with the universe and all its powers, and when they realize that at the center of the universe dwells Wakan-Taka (the Great Spirit), and that this center is really everywhere; it is within each of us. This is the real peace, and the others are but reflections of this. The second peace is that which is made between two individuals, and the third is that which is made between two nations. But above all you should understand that there can never be peace between nations until it is known that true peace, which, as I have often said, is within the souls of men.
~ ~ ~
You have noticed that everything an Indian does is in a circle, and that is because the Power of the World always works in circles, and everything tries to be round. Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing and always come back again to where they were. The life of a man is a circle from childhood to childhood, and so it is in everything where power moves.
~ ~ ~
Grandfather, Great Spirit, once more behold me on earth and lean to hear my feeble voice. You lived first, and you are older than all need, older than all prayer. All things belong to you, the two-legged, the four-legged, the wings of the air, and all green things that live. You have set the powers of the four quarters of the earth to cross each other. You have made me cross the good road and the road of difficulties, and where they cross, the place is holy. Day in, day out, forevermore, you are the life of things.
~ ~ ~
Then a voice said, ‘Behold this day, for it is yours to make.’ I saw more than I can tell, and I understood more than I saw; for I was seeing in a sacred manner the shapes of all things in the spirit, and the shape of all shapes as they must live together like one being.
~ ~ ~
The Six Grandfathers have placed in this world many things, all of which should be happy. Every little thing is sent for something, and in that thing there should be happiness and the power to make happy. Like the grasses showing tender faces to each other, thus we should do, for this was the wish of the Grandfathers of the World.
~ ~ ~
(The following quote relates to a vision his cousin Crazy Horse had.)
When I was a man, my father told me something about that vision. Of course he did not know all of it; but he said that Crazy Horse dreamed and went into the world where there is nothing but the spirits of all things. That is the real world that is behind this one, and everything we see here is something like a shadow from that world. He was on his horse in that world, and the horse and himself on it and the trees and the grass and the stones and everything were made of spirit, and nothing was hard, and everything seemed to float. His horse was standing still there, and yet it danced around like a horse made only of shadow, and that is how he got his name, which does not mean that his horse was crazy or wild, but that in his vision it danced around in that queer way.
~ ~ ~
Black
Hawk
Makataimeshekiakiak
1767
– 1838
Black Hawk was a Sauk warrior and war leader who fought with the British during the War of 1812. In 1832, Black Hawk led a group of Native Americans against the United States in what has become known as the Black Hawk War. Black Hawk was attempting to resettle in his ancestral lands (Illinois) that he believed had been unfairly ceded to the U.S. government in an 1804 treaty. As a volunteer in the Illinois Militia, Abraham Lincoln gained his only military experience during the Black Hawk War. Black Hawk became the first Native American to have his autobiography published in the United States (1833).
~ ~ ~
How smooth must be the language of the whites, when they can make right look like wrong and wrong look like right.
~ ~ ~
At least one of the lodges in the village makes a feast daily for the Great Spirit. I cannot explain this so that the white people will comprehend me because we have no regular standard among us. Everyone makes his feast as he thinks best to please the Great Spirit who has the care of all beings created.
~ ~ ~
During the first year, a newly married couple discovers whether they can agree with each other and can be happy. If not, they part and look for other partners. If we were to live together and disagree, we should be as foolish as the whites.
~ ~ ~
No indiscretion can banish a woman from her parental lodge. It makes no difference how many children she may bring home; she is always welcome. The kettle is over the fire to feed them.
~ ~ ~
We have men among us, like the whites, who pretend to know the right path but will not consent to show it without pay! I have no faith in their paths but believe that every man must make his own path!
~ ~ ~
My reason teaches me that land cannot be sold. The Great Spirit gave it to his children to live upon and cultivate as far as necessary for their subsistence. And, so long as they occupy and cultivate it, they have the right to the soil, but if they voluntarily leave it, then other people have a right to settle on it. Nothing can be sold, except things that can be carried away.
~ ~ ~
We can only judge what is proper and right by our standard of right and wrong, which differs widely from the whites, if I have been correctly informed. The whites may do bad all their lives and then, if they are sorry for it when they are about to die, all is well! But with us it is different. We must continue throughout our lives to do what we conceive to be good. If we have corn and meat and know of a family that has none, we divide with them. If we have more blankets than are sufficient and others have not enough, we must give to them that want.
~ ~ ~
The path to glory is rough and many gloomy hours obscure it. May the Great Spirit shed light on your path so that you may never experience the humility that the power of the American government has reduced me to. This is the wish of a man who, in his native forests, was once as proud and bold as yourself.
~ ~ ~
Black
Kettle
Moke-tav-a-to
1803 -
1868
Black Kettle was a Whutapius Cheyenne leader and peacemaker in what is now Kansas and Colorado. He advocated for peace among his people but had difficulty controlling some of his younger, dissident warriors. While living with those of his people who had pledged nonviolence – and flying an American flag over his camp in a show of nonviolence – his camp was attached by Colorado Volunteers. Several hundred Cheyenne were killed, the majority of whom were women and children. The survivors moved to another camp that was attacked by General George Custer. Custer claimed to have killed warriors, but the majority of the dead again were women and children and included Black Kettle and his wife.
~ ~ ~
Why don’t you talk, go straight, and let all be well?
We have been travelling through a cloud. The sky has been dark ever since the war began.
These people that are with us are glad to think that we can have peace once more and can sleep soundly, and that we can live.
All we ask is that we have peace with the whites. We want to hold you by the hand. You are our father.